


Heartbreaker

by Blushing_starker



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst with a Happy Ending, Betty Brant is a Good Bro, Break Up, Cheating, F/M, Flash Thompson is sort of a Good Bro, Hurt Peter Parker, Light Angst, M/M, Michelle Jones Is a Good Bro, Ned Leeds is a Good Bro, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Peter Parker isnt taking anyones shit, Unfaithful Tony, babes this is sort of sad, but its because of his friendships that its a happy ending, hes ah getting there
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-19
Updated: 2020-10-19
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:14:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,816
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27097135
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blushing_starker/pseuds/Blushing_starker
Summary: Every day for a month, he notes down suspicious behavior, checks his list and compiles the data for analysis. If the numbers are considerably high, he'll leave. Break up with Tony, cry and eat ice cream with his best friends, head to the gym for an impromptu boxing session, and fall asleep for twelve hours. If they're not too worrisome, Peter vows to keep up the investigation for one more month just in case. After that, assuming things aren't what he suspects, they can sit down and discuss Tony's odd tics.For now, though, four hours in the lab after witnessing two break ups in the linoleum halls of purgatory, he tugs the list out of worn jeans and begins the tedious ordeal of holding back tears as he scratches charcoal a bit too hard against crumpled paper.
Relationships: Happy Hogan/May Parker (Spider-Man), Michelle Jones & Peter Parker, Ned Leeds & Peter Parker, Peter Parker/Tony Stark
Comments: 7
Kudos: 68





	Heartbreaker

**Author's Note:**

> Hi babes! Kudos and comments sustain me and I'm definitely gonna be needing them this week since I have the collegeboard coming up. The moodboard for this at blushing-starker. Unfortunately, I'm an old hag in a young body and have no knowledge of how to link stuff.

They've been dating for five months, he's loved Tony for a year and Peter is half way sure the man's been cheating half the time they've been together.

He knows things, even if Tony _is_ his first serious partner. Ned and MJ may be his closest friends, but high school is a free for all battleground where allies and enemies are publicly made. By the time Peter is just shy of attending college, he's seen all the signs of an unhappy relationship. Whenever he's not worrying over his internship projects, Peter checks his list.

It's not a very long list, mind you, but each crossed x brings him closer to snapping his pencil and punching a hole through the fancy cars glittering beneath the lab's florescent lights. Because Peter Benjamin Parker is a man of science, he has a calendar. Every day for a month, he notes down suspicious behavior, checks his list and compiles the data for analysis. If the numbers are considerably high, he'll leave. Break up with Tony, cry and eat ice cream with his best friends, head to the gym for an impromptu boxing session, and fall asleep for twelve hours. If they're not too worrisome, Peter vows to keep up the investigation for one more month just in case. After that, assuming things aren't what he suspects, they can sit down and discuss Tony's odd tics.

For now, though, four hours in the lab after witnessing two break ups in the linoleum halls of purgatory, he tugs the list out of worn jeans and begins the tedious ordeal of holding back tears as he scratches charcoal a bit too hard against crumpled paper.

  1. Taking the phone everywhere.



When you live in a state of the art mansion with the most advanced A.I installed to help in all aspects of life, there's really no need to have a phone three inches away during each moment. Tony's phone, recently upgraded so only the billionaire has access to it, lays flat against the tabletop with the screen facing shiny metal surfaces when it's not snug in the pockets of baggy sweatpants that are most definitely new.

Long ago, Tony had admitted he disliked the way sweatpants left so much to the imagination. Stick me in jeans any day, kid. Those were his words. But Peter isn't stupid. Flash, a reluctant acquaintance by now, had sent him a picture of his boyfriend at a gym Peter would never dream of working out in for fear of looking too out of place. Even with Tony's money made accessible to him, Peter would never be comfortable in that type of high class place. Which is probably why the Stark patriarch spends so much time there developing muscle.

That leads him to

  1. More focused on their appearance.



Take away the picture and he still would have made the connection. Peter had gone in search of a pair of boxers after a much needed shower and found twenty new pairs of jeans and shirts too big to be gifts for him in Tony's closet. All the old band merch and soft flannel clothes were gone from the closet. No torn cotton tank tops or five dollar sunglasses. Now Tony slept with Gucci pjs warming his body from the cold. And God forbid the paparazzi catch sight of a grey hair.

  1. Too much and not enough.



There are some things he can't understand, and that's ok. It's to be expected since Peter is a senior in high school and Tony runs a company. At the beginning, they'd share information that would be easily digested and processed. He wouldn't bother complaining about how Flash keeps referencing Tik Toks during class and Tony wouldn't rant to him about the price of shipping containers with reinforced steel. Still, their relationship was an open one, so if they needed to spew, they would. But some subjects weren't brought up because it would lead to two frustrated people.

It was annoying and unfair, but both of them had made peace with the reality. Until Peter was fully integrated in the company, until Tony caught up on pop culture, there would be bridges too unsteady to cross yet.

But for Tony to gush about the "wonderful" meeting he had this morning, for him to describe the shareholders' clothes down to the suspected thread count when just yesterday he'd said the time spent in the lab was normal, it creates a cold pit of dread inside Peter. Friday explained the lab had caught on fire when "Mr Stark was too occupied to notice a canister of gas that rolled too close to an experiment he was conducting".

She wasn't allowed to tell him what Tony had been too occupied with. Or, most likely, who.

The check boxes keep getting filled with a mix of tears and charcoal and events continue to be seen through a different perspective.

\----------

Everything becomes unbearable when the gifts arrive one afternoon. Peter's barely inside his room before his Spider sense is warning him. From the Iron Man bedsheets, a quick figure leaps at him with a high whine. He ditches his backpack, catches the two pounds, comes down from the superhero mindset once he realizes what's currently nibbling on his wrist.

Tony got him a puppy. His boyfriend of five months, the man that barely kisses Peter these days, let alone actually communicates with him, bought him a German shepherd puppy. There's a red bow around a furry neck, half askew from all the wriggling it's doing. Who, after a quick check, becomes a he.

Beside the canine, there are five boxes on his bed. A Chanel, a Gucci, a Prada, a Dior and a Louis Vuitton settled on top of twenty-dollar cotton sheets that have been mended since Peter was five.

He calls the mystery gang, asks if they'd like some early birthday gifts from Tony. It takes nearly nothing for them to know. Plans are made to return the items, whatever they are, and get money back. He can ask the bank for receipts; Ms Felicia, their accountant, likes him more than Tony. With the money, they'll go on a road trip to Disneyland with

"Hey, Ben. It's so nice to meet you. Do you wanna go to the pet store with me, get some stuff for you to play with?"

Ben woofs at him, presumably smiles and proceeds to leave his face drenched in slobber. Already, he knows MJ would kill everyone and herself if something happened to Ben.

\----------

The New York Times breaks it to him, actually. His uncle loved the newspaper so they'd kept receiving it after his death. There on the front page, “ **Tony Stark caught making out with Pepper Potts yesterday**.” Below it, a little note with the reporter saying this new relationship would negatively affect company earnings. After all, most of Stark Industries ' allies had taken a liking to Peter. They saw him as the future of the world's leaders in tech and science. Their refusal to partake in a relationship with Stark Industries would be justified by some trivial squabble. But he's sure those companies will be knocking at his door soon enough.

He wonders how much good he can bring to his community if he accepts the offers of collaboration.

\---------

"I've been in love with you for a year, we've been dating for five months, you've cheated for two and a half and Ben has been with me since yesterday. But I've heard about the infamous Stark playboy since I was _six_. When we got together, I was so sure you'd be loyal, so sure you wouldn't betray me, that it took me two weeks to stop being angry at my _best friends_ for even suggesting the idea of you cheating. I don't want to know if it was me, because I know it wasn't. It's you and your need for attention, for the spotlight. Tony Stark has been a womanizer his entire life. Every newspaper, media outlet and text message is screaming that at me. Maybe it's not true, maybe it's not a compulsion. Maybe it's just you falling for someone else while in a relationship. You can't stop your body from reacting or your feelings from developing into bigger things. But you could have talked to me. You could have sat down in that lab and taken a _minute_ to tell me this wasn't going to work; this won't work because you love Ms Pepper.

It would have left me in tears, but at least I wouldn't have been strung along for months, just hoping it'd be my imagination or something else completely. You knew what you were doing, and you still decided to lie to me. Every single day. So I'm going inside that room, I'm telling those reporters we're through and that my internship is done. I won't say anything bad or say you were cheating. After that, I'm going to hang out with my friends, go to Disney and have fun. I'm going to forget about you for a while, I'm going to live with the fact that I was cheated on for months by someone I _loved_ , someone I thought loved me, and I'll try to heal with Ben and my family. If you ever appear in my life for a reason that isn't to apologize or tell me you're dying, I will sign contracts with all the companies that left Stark Industries.

And I'll tell the New York Times you have a small dick because now May can't be outside with Happy without some conspiracy about us appearing, Ned and MJ are being harassed by paparazzi to see what they think of this and the school has gone insane. But I won't admit you cheated on me for months because Ms Pepper doesn't deserve to be hurt because of you. And we both know she'd be blamed for everything.

We could've been friends, at least. Now I can barely get out of my bed because of you. Don't show up unless it means something. "

\-------

He strips his bed of Iron Man sheets, uses a Spider-Man blanket to warm him and Ben up as the mystery gang settles in to watch a movie. Ned is settled on his right, snacking on Betty's popcorn every few seconds. MJ and Flash are discussing the best movie directors on his left while May laughs at a joke Happy made in the kitchen. Each member of his family, Ben included, wears Spider-Man merch. His heart aches, wishes to see Tony swoop down with arms full of snacks. But he's been in love with Tony for a year. It's time to love himself for a change. Maybe he'll make it to more than a year. Popcorn and M&M's go flying and Peter thinks, yeah, he can learn to see life through a more upbeat perspective with these guys around.


End file.
